Sticks and Stones

Whether politics is an art or a science may intrigue the academics, but for many of us in Northern Ireland it is a deeply dispiriting and often quite ugly spectacle.  Let me balance that by saying unequivocally that our leaders deserve a great deal of respect and...

Does Reconciliation Require Joint Worship?

In her chapter in Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims: Irish “Religious” Conflict in Comparative Perspective Gladys Ganiel asks if churches in Northern Ireland can contribute to post-violence reconciliation and reconstruction. She cites the role of ECONI and, more...

Why Ireland Needs Answers

Notoriously, some generals have prepared to win the battles fought by the previous generation. British armies from 1939 to 1941 used the tactics of 1918. As a result, UK forces were routed by the Wermacht in the Battle of France. Two years later, General Percival...

Unfair Trade

(This article appeared on the blog PeoplePlanetProphet on 1 November 2014) Christians of all stripes should be concerned about the proposed free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United States (US). In the book of Exodus we read of the...

Elections 2015: any hope for an elusive quality?

The Virgin airlines 747 pilot who this week had to make an emergency landing said he was just doing his job and had expressed a preference not to be named. When reporting this fact, one radio presenter commented in a tone of admiration that he was also “obviously a...

Cultivating Still, Small Voices

“After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” (1 Kings 9:12) In October Mark Driscoll, the outspoken Pastor of the Mars Hill “Mega-Church” in Seattle, sensationally resigned...